ALBORADA - SAYRI ÑAN

3.31.2011

"The guy stopped, gasping some fatigue, while trying to breathe and sigh at the same time. The sight of the Andes struck his senses, stronger yet, suffocating him completely. Experienced in many roads, left the bike, looking at his mates down there, and gasping again. "No, definitely, there is nothing like that." He had risen a little more than the others, leading the bike carefully, sometimes taking risks to watching. They had run some hundred meters and reached the foot of a mountain and, after a few minutes, after some bushes, the mount of gray rocks, discomposedly arranged by the hand of the time, announced, few meters above, the Qhapac Ñan (1 ) as a thin gray line, climbing the cliffs, as everyone had seen, perplexed, from the quiet of the road. He remembered everything he had read about the path and found that words could never describe it. No human being could describe the thrill of discovery. It was like stepping back in time, some five hundred years, it was like watching the comings and goings of American Civilization. He felt a little jealous of not belonging at all this and then he thought, "I'm here!". He shouted to the fellows who smiled back, full of enthusiasm and joy. Then he climbed, with strength and security, the meters that separated him from the Qhapac Ñan. He stepped on it with the reverence of who gets to go home. He shouted, 'ah' with the full power of his lungs, almost angrily, mixing all the feelings in one package. He did not think the guys down there, he forgot everything that he had lived up there. His feet were, finally, on the path of the Great Lord. "

From the square of Wakaypata, that delimitated the duality of the city of Cusco in Hanan and Hurin (Upper and Lower Cuzco), converged the four Inca paths, because the city was the convergence center of the road network of the Qhapac Ñan. This one, with its confluences was the key of the whole social and spatial organization of Inca life, beyond adding administratives functions, economic, political, religious, and also of war. From the Qhapac Ñan, a whole network of secondary roads, equally importants, connected, completely, the Tahuantinsuyo.

Paved with stones, despite the road design does not have a single standard but adapted to the geography of each region, were made ​​to last. The width of the roads also varies: in some areas reaches 15 meters, in others it reaches one meter and a half, in order to outflank some ravines or gorges. Throughout the road network, every twenty kilometers or as needed, had constructions called tambos (2). These tambos could also accommodate passersby and travelers, in addition to storing food, grains and clothes. The Inca imperial army, when in campaign, also used them. The Qhapaq Ñan was the basis for the development of Tahuantinsuyo and for its consolidation as Empire, by extending to northern Argentina, northern Chile, Bolivia, entire Peru and Ecuador, arriving in southern Colombia. Uniting jungle, mountains and coast, the andean way, unfolding in a whole system of roads and bridges, with a heavy traffic of people and merchandises, left its original role to taking its place in history as part of the culture of the planet.

image: Qhapaq Ñan PerúThe main road had 5,200 km, went from Quito (Ecuador) till Cuzco (Peru), and ended in (actual) Tucuman, Argentina, crossing mountains and hills, with heights of over 5.000 meters.

The coast road, parallel to the sea, had 4000 km and linked to the Qhapac Ñan by various connections. Both this and the coastal highway had a maximum width of four meters. second road from Cusco to Nazca (Peru center) and Tumbes (border between Peru and Ecuador). A third main road from Cusco to Chuquiabo (Bolivia). And the fourth route from Cusco to Arica (Chile), with branches to the river Maule (Chile) and San Miguel de Tucuman (Argentina). The Qhapac Ñan became a mythic path and the symbol of all the great civilization of ancient South America, and now represents the heart of those who seek him, today, in another way, more fluid, more imaginative, what accounted for the Inca people in their daily lives. The material assumes, today, an adventurous and spiritual caracter - linking the past to the present, through his cobble of gray rocks; carrying us back, to the origins of an America so poorly understood. Built during the heyday of the Empire, in the fifteenth century, was its bond of union and the vector of exchange and circulation, flooding it with life, leading daily, people of all "classes", such as soldiers, traders, artisans and... the chasquis.

These, were messengers, that, alternating every five kilometers, ran down the roads, to bring all sorts of messages, which allowed them to arrive as quickly as possible to the destination.

Each seven kilometers there was a Pukara (3) that controlled the movement of the roads, every twenty kilometers, a tambo, and every fifty kilometers, came to an important city.

Untill today, even in less preserved paths, one can reach all major places of pre-columbian ceremonial, such as Chavin de Huantar, Tihuanaku, Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley of Urubamba, the great cities of Empire as Tumebamba and Cuzco, numerous ruins of military buildings, rural communities and urban centers, historic colonial cities such as Ingarpica, Cuenca, Cajamarca y Tarma. Concurrently, one can even get to other archaeological sites of pre-Columbian cultures like the Canaris, Mochica, Chimu. image: Qhapaq Ñan PerúSpecifically in Cajamarca, sad stage of what represented the "end" of Tahuantinsuyo, with the arrest and death of Atahualpa, the Qhapaq Ñan of Chinchaysuyo traverses the region, longitudinally, with secondary and transverse roads, what makes that Cajamarca is interspersed with ancient roads. From north to south, the Qhapac Ñan, coming from Huamachuco till Cajabamba, through Cauday, coming down to the river Crisnejas, up until Chancay by the uphill of the Inca, passing to Ichocán, San Marcos, Namora, around the pond of Sulluscocha until reach the Inca Baths (favorite place of Atahualpa), across the zone of Shaullo. From Baths of the Inca the path leads to Cajamarca, and from there to Rumichaca, after Incatambo (San Pablo), rising again, to the northwest, until Chancay Baños (Santa Cruz) passing through the area of ​​Pucara before crossing several times the ravine of Huancabamba to reach then Caxas and Ayabaca in Piura. Completing, there are still traces of these paths of Cajamarca to Hualgayoc, to Bambamarca and to Celendín on the road to Chachapoyas. There is also a transverse road that begins in Huancabamba, in Piura, that passes by San Ignacio and Jaén, in Cajamarca, going to toward Kuelap, in Chachapoyas. Still others, linking Cajamarca to the coast by the valley of Chicama in La Libertad, or by the valley of Jequetepeque till Lambayeque.

Although the subject matter experts compare the Qhapac Ñan to the road network of the Roman Empire, particularly, I believe that there can be no possible comparison, by the fact it was built on the heights of the Andes, coming up to five thousand feet above sea level, with all the difficulties that the engineering work had to face for its realization. It is definitely one of the great wonders of the world, crossing by fifteen different ecoregions, four of them threatened with extinction (Peruvian Yungas, Marañón Dry Forests (Cerrados), the Chilean scrub and the Chilean winter jungle.

The "Qhapaq Ñan", The Great Inca Path, that extended his veins, through its roads and trails, by forty thousand kilometers, linking the Andes - mountains, coast and jungle -, waits now to be included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

3.28.2011

"In 1985 the Ecuadorian Congress has determined that December 1 of each year was a day to remember Rumiñahui as an hero and defender of the Kingdom of Quito."

Rumiñahui is a nickname; in Quechua means "eye of stone". Certainly, in addition to historical references, which highlight his strong stance against the Spaniards in the Battle of Mount Chimborazo, he was always one of the best warriors, or the best of the army of Atahualpa.

Born in Pillaro, present-day province of Tungurahua, in Ecuador, by the name of Pillahuaso, died on June 25, 1535, after having led the resistance against the Spaniards in the north of the Inca Empire (now Ecuador) in 1533. Assumed the insurgency with an iron hand, after the murder of Atahualpa, by the Spaniards in Cajamarca. Historians seem to believe that he was half-brother of Atahualpa, son of the Inca with some noble from Quito.

When Francisco Pizarro arrested Atahualpa, demanding ransom, Rumiñahui promptly marched to Cajamarca, carrying a large amount of gold but, as we know, the Spaniards broke their word and Atahualpa was killed before he got there, what made he returning to Quito, hiding the treasure, as mentioned previously, in the region of Llanganates.

By knowing the strength of Rumiñahui, Francisco Pizarro sent his lieutenant, Sebastián de Benalcazar to take Quito and bring all the gold that could be achieved. The Forces of Rumiñahui and Benalcázar clashed at the Battle of Mount Chimborazo, where Rumiñahui was defeated. However, before the Spanish forces invaded Quito, Rumiñahui ordered that it be burned to the ground, and that the ñustas (temple virgins) were killed to preserving their honor. Rumiñahui was finally captured, tortured and killed by the Spaniards, but never revealed the location of the treasure.

As general of the armies of Cuzco, Rumiñahui is remembered for have participated in several campaigns, in which he could support Atahuallpa and constantly accompanied him. With the death of Huayna Capac the rapprochement between both was, of course, even larger, whether by lived experience or by the precipitation of future events.

Rumiñahui was a major participant in the civil war conducted by Atahualpa against his brother, the legitimate Inca of Cuzco, Huascar Inca, maintaining close contact with his leader. At the beginning of hostilities, was present in the more important fightings alongside Quizquiz and Chalcochima but when the area of ​​operations was transferred to the Inca capital, he was assigned to protect the rear. Thus, he was in Cajamarca in the terrible moment of the capture of Atahualpa.

Apparently, experienced general, wanted to attack the Spaniards at the moment of his arrival; Atahualpa, however, declined to do so. Rumiñahui remained, then, encamped, outside the city, with an army of five thousand soldiers.

Historians and lay people, they face a single question, it seems, will never be answered.

Why, then, Rumiñahui, not moved his army and not destroyed the Spaniards in that moment?

We can infer that the rigid military discipline of the incan would not allow him to take such a decision alone, what made him wait for the decision of Atahualpa, even though he was in the hands of the Spaniards. Secondly, because of the rapidity of the action and confusion caused - his interference could harm the physical integrity of the Inca,that at that moment, was exactly in the middle of the killing.

When the Inca defeat was clearly exposed, Rumiñahui ordered the withdrawal of the army to Quito, suffering no loss.

During Atahualpa's captivity, he merely controled the Spanish presence, while the collecting of treasure to the rescue was supervised personally by Quilliscache, brother of the Inca. With the death of Atahualpa, Rumiñahui realized that the Spaniards would come to the territories and prepared to act.

Encountered opposition from Quilliscache that preferred to use diplomacy with aliens who had already given proof of invincibility. Revolted with the weakness of the legitimate heir of Atahualpa, decided to act. Under the pretext of a banquet in a posthumous tribute to the Inca, met all the relatives of Atahualpa and his followers and, in the middle of the meeting, arrested everyone. Before naming himself as Lord of Quito, killed Quilliscache, considering him a traitor of the land of their ancestors. The Spanish chroniclers make a grisly description of the death, which I prefer not to accept, because they also said that he had killed all the sons of Atahualpa that occasion, what is unfounded, because, later, they appeared alive.

Initially, the spanish forces could only count on the troops of Banalcazar that, on their own, had ventured in the conquest of the Northern Territory, blinded by the possibility of finding gold, as it was told that there were aplenty.

The lieutenant of Pizarro, followed by Almagro, came, soon, to join him, with few men, to bring him to reason. Gradually, this contingent has been reinforced with the arrival of Don Pedro de Alvarado, conqueror of Mexico, which had reached the Andes from Puerto Viejo, leaving behind him an impressive number of victims. Even Rumiñahui was not alone. The army of Zope-Zopahua and the one of Quizquiz, coming from the Cusco region, came to join him. The three armies were operating separately, which would have facilitated to the Spaniards fight them one by one, with strategic advantages.However, the factor that defined the conflict, was the presence of the Cañari, who joined the invaders. Old enemies of the people of Quito, believed able to take advantage of the occasion to defeat their "oppressors" and gain freedom. They provided the Spaniards with the necessary supplies, were in charge of transporting luggage and, in the battle, were the first to enter combat, leaving the Spaniards to intervene in the midst of the struggle to resolve the situation.

The first battles, however, were fierce: Teocajas, Ambato, Pancallo and Latacunga were favorable to the armies of Quito, which did not lose ground. Quizquiz alone killed fourteen enemies in a single fight, forcing the Spanish army to retreat. However, a strange event caused him to be killed by his own men who wanted a state of guerrilla.

Rumiñahui organized tactics for dealing with horses: holes in the ground, covered with branches and leaves, to prevent the advance of them, but the Cañari went in front, dismantling the traps.

When the Spaniards finally entered in Quito, they found it burned and abandoned.

Chased by the cavalry, the warriors of Quito have made jugglings, however, they were accustomed to quick battles, while foreigners to long campaigns. The defections had grown day by day, and Rumiñahui was forced to leave the area, pursued by enemies. It remained to him a handful of men, the invincible leader tried once again to escape but was captured after a fierce struggle. Soon after, Zope-Zopahua also fell prisoner, apparently abandoned by theirs, and forced to surrender. Rumiñahui and the others were tortured, but revealed nothing. Seeing that their efforts were useless, the Spaniards decided by their death and, in June 25, 1535, Rumiñahui, Zopa-Zopahua, Quingalumba, Razorazo and Sina were executed in a barbaric manner.

In Ecuador, Rumiñahui is considered "defender of Quito," national hero and, about him, many works were written.

3.26.2011

"The adventurer looked to the top, eager to plant the flag in the heights of Aconcagua. He was about ten steps from the "Cementerio de los Andinistas "(1) and could feel the hopelessness that perpetuates the history of who tumbles without display the flag of his country - buried there, as testament of the unpreparedness, irresponsibility or lack of luck. He tried not to think, avoiding to feel something.His foot was stuck on the ground, powerfully, in a desperate attempt to see himself bigger than the event . The guide approached calmly with a smile and an apology. Today, they couldn't go anywhere. The climate changed quickly, again, it would be impossible to reach the top in the coming days. He tried to reply, shutting up, immediately, remembering the cemetery. The guide consoled him: they wouldn't face the chill wind of the mountain, but... he would show him the secrets and mysteries of the Inca Bridge."

On the way to Las Cuevas (border with Chile), we find one of the most famous spa resort of Argentina. The baths in these waters are recommended for various diseases and the natural characteristics of the region compete with the mystery of its legends ... to enchant us ...

In 1965, a devastating avalanche destroyed the beautiful Hotel Puente del Inca who had survived, previously, of countless disasters. It was a solid building, sumptuous, with underground access to the termals pools - in this area emerge sources of hot water, mineral, that flow without stopping...

Evidence of the slip are still there, showing the cascade of rocks that rolled abruptly to the bottom of the valley...Fortunately, guests and employees, "miraculously" were saved, by taking shelter in the little church remained intact and can still be seen today.

Located in the Cordillera of the Andes, 2,720 meters above sea level, the Puente del Inca (Inca Bridge), is famous as a natural bridge, unique in the world, declared a Natural Monument. It seems that was formed by the action of the waters, that have minerals in excess, and by the action of thermal waters in the sediments placed in the bottom of a cavity. Due to them, the yellow color, orange, ocher, that dyes all the area, and any object that you put under them, stands so impregnated with mineral salts that acquires an appearance of stone .On the right bank, the famous spa, with five sources of the same type but of different temperatures and components. The landscape, surrounded by mountains, stretches itself tens of meters below the bridge, into the waters of the river Las Cuevas...

(Forty-seven feet long by twenty-eight wide, on Las Cuevas River. Called Puente del Inca because of the Inca nobility that served of its medicinal hot springs, that flows from the pool, under it.)

The story of the Bridge begins with the Path of the Inca and its legends ...

It is assumed that the Incas have used its waters with healing properties. His fame is rightly due mainly to its thermal baths. Existing buildings, beside and under the bridge,like small pools where the waters flow, thermal, originated from natural sources with temperatures ranging between 34 and 38 degrees. The baths are recommended for nervous disorders, rheumatic diseases, gynecological treatment, children with anemia, rickets and arthritis.

The area is ideal for adventure tourism, mountain climbing, horseback riding and snow sports.Nearby is the "Cerro Los Penientes", so called because its great walls of stone,when seen from the distance, look like huge monks in procession.

From the bridge when the sun makes shine the dawn in tones, totaly golden, revealing stalactites, there's a magical world that takes us ... drawing fluid rainbows, in the water, and on the ice, insinuating fantastic connotations, in nature that, always, made ​​the place sacred to the Incas ...

The name of the place comes from a legend ...

A long, long time ago... long before the arrival of the Spaniards ...

THE LEGEND OF THE INCA'S BRIDGE

The successor of the Inca Empire was, gravely ill. He was a wise and just prince, like his father, and everyone loved him very much. For all the land of Tahuantinsuyo all prayed to the gods by making sacrifices and offerings for their health. But the Prince only got worse and everyone feared that his death would put at risk the future of the Empire. By consulting the Amautas (2), they were told that the prince would regain health if he could bathe in the waters of a certain place, far away, toward the south, between the rocks and mountains of the Cordillera. There, they say, sprang a water that it could cure all diseases.

However, to getting there, they should traverse distances, deserts and climb mountains. Wasting no time, the Inca ordered to preparing an entourage to accompany the prince and, in the morning, they departed from Cuzco in search of the mighty waters. At dawn, they followed the road - with many llamas, laden with food and everything needed for such a long journey. Despite concerns about the prince, the trip did them to knowing a part of Tahuantinsuyo that let them wondered ...

The long trip led them by the abrupt mountains, peaceful valleys, desert fields and verdant meadows, rivers, streams, moonlit nights and days of gold and light. For days and days were they, on the way, sharing with nature and their gods a unique experience.

By day the sun gave them all shades of green and the colored of many exotic flowers; the grandeur and the splendor of the nature snatched them. At night, the giants spectra of the mountains had placed them, in front of the unknown, with amazement - sounds and noises like if the land spoke to them with voice that only they could understand, repeating the echo in the cliffs, in the vastness of the valleys ...Until, as an announcement that were near the goal, they stopped, paralyzed by the sight of the more beautiful and mysterious mountain that they had seen. They stood in front of the Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Andes and its powerful Apu (3).

By winning the surprise and the enthusiasm, they went ahead and, after a short walk, in which many hares crossed his path, as if to greet them, they arrived almost late in the afternoon, on a ravine. Down there, embedded in the ravine, ran a mighty river that advanced, invincible, on the rocks ...

The sound of the trumpet, the quepa, (4) broke the silence to announce that they had arrived. However, there was nothing to do: the hot springs were on the other side of the ravine, inaccessibles ...

A total despair overtook them because of the impossibility that presented itself. They stayed, there, the night, tired and waiting that the sun, Father of all the Incas, would bring a solution to the problem.

At dawn, as they were led by the power and love of the Sun, from which all the Incas are children, the soldiers of the entourage, Inti warriors (5), began to embrace each other, forming a human bridge so that the Son of the Sun could reach the other side. The Inca walked, on their backs, with his son in the arms and, thus, he could reach the hot springs, finding the cure for the boy.

When he looked back to thank his warriors, they had been petrified and had become what today is known as "Puente del Inca. "

Maybe this is my favorite legend for what it represents. So,the Great Tahuantinsuyo is. The power of the sun alied with the strength of men and women of a kingdom, eternally in search of perfection. This legend represents many things. There is the "divine", present in all the stages of the way and in all the discoveries and there is the human side, seeking to overcome its difficulties with union and faith, never giving up on their goals and fulfilling their duty to the end.

This legend, surely, expresses the Tahuantinsuyo in its simplest form and, at the same time, the most grandiose: land of gods, home of the Sun, nation of warriors ...

Some tell that, when night is coming, when the hills are like a rubbed drawing, shrouded in veils of startling forms, it can see pass by a caravan of strange figures, as if it came of the time, of the silence, crossing from one mountain to another, eternaly seeking the healing waters ...

(1) located on the southern route linking Mendoza to Santiago de Chile, a distance of 1,500 meters of the Puente del Inca, to six miles from Los Penitentes.

(2) a person of great wisdom, teacher, master.

(3) mountain spirit.

(4) (quepa or pututu) - great trumpet made of a large marine snail, with the inner channel, spiral.

3.23.2011

In the Andes, the concept of death is not defined as the moment in which the body stops breathing. It's a long, long process that includes the approach of the act itself and continues after the expiration, when the dead continue to dwell in the living world.Thus, the andean dead are, more properly, defined in Quechua word "huañuc"(mortal). Quechua word huañuy (die) was used to mean "completely and perfectly" and does not mean the absolute end of human existence, but rather a new stage). Death is a gradual process and does not end when the body ends. This long process can be identified in a number of conditions that are considered temporary death or near-death, deep sleep or coma, unconsciousness, binge drinking, or near-death. Huañuc is an intermittent process that marks the passage of vital and fresh (but also formless and mutable) for the immutable kind-of-existence characteristic of too old beings - an analogy with plants, animals and people who pass from states of tender life, juicy and rapidly changing, as is the case of babies and tender plants, to heavy states, of very long-term, as dried bark, trees, old people and ancestors mummified .The state of Huañuc ends with the final rituals of mourning that turn a person into a permanent or consacrated ancestor. During transforming, the non-corporeal aspect of the deceased is prepared to embark on a journey that ends in reunion with the ancestors in their ancestral home.On the other hand, the concept of the vital principle or animating force that is known in Quechua by camaquen or Upani terms. During the colonial period we also find the terms "anima" and "soul", as in animacunata (spirits of the dead).

Guaman Poma described the spirits of the persons of Collasuyu and Cuntisuyu who left to Puquina Pampa and Coropuna, where they would join. Even today in Cuzco, the mountain Coropuna is known as the land of the dead. It is also believed that the world of deads included farms where they continued to plow and sow the fields because they were hungry and thirsty. Thus, food and drink were periodically offered to the dead. In the seventeenth century, Cristóbal Haca Malqui, reported that increasing the number of deads had caused an excessive increase in the ancestral world, such that the fields distributed (topos) had been reduced to the size of a fingernail.

As before, today they still believe this, with some variation from region to region.The belief in a land of the dead with fields and crops continues. In Sonqo, a community northeast of Cusco, is said that the ancestors (machukuna - ancient people) live in a parallel world of the modern community, their potato fields occupy the same place (in another dimension), of the fields of the local community.

Although inhabiting another dimension, the dead continue to exist in close association with his remains. The Incas, carefully, cared for their mummies as sacred and the contemporary people act the same way, in rural communities is common to see the skull of an ancestor, high on a shelf, watching for his descendents.They also consider that it is very dangerous to a "soul" does not reach its destination. If something goes wrong it will go back to the community. The "anima" could cause terrible illnesses, accidents and

appear before the imminent death of a relative or friend. Thus, unhappy episodes are atributed, not the individual, but to the evil nature of his anima. Not all the "anima" reach their destination - the ancestral world.The souls of sinners individuals can not leave the body and are doomed to wander, with the putrid flesh, rotting out of him. Such creatures are known as Kukuchi and remember, in the Western tradition, the condemned to remain in purgatory. The kukuchi are condemned to wander the glaciers, they are much feared by his desire to eat human flesh.

The main point of all I'm saying is the crucial point of this tour in the world of the dead and what determines its crossing be satisfactory or not. This is the Achachaca or Bridge of hairs. Achachaca is a narrow bridge (thin) on a wide river, made of human hair. There is who argues that there is a bunch of black dogs, there, and it is not difficult that, in some communities, they kill the dogs when they are found described this way. I must confess that I would like to have found more research material to provide a better account of this crossing.

The Crossing of the Bridge of Hairs, Achachaca, seems to be the most known and described aspect of the journey of the dead. The crossing is considered very dangerous and, the human help, needed. Offerings of human hair are burnt so the anima can cross the bridge successfully.

It is also believed in the dangerous crossing of Puka Mayu, Red River (also called Yawar Mayu, Blood River) by the spirit which, in this case, is carried by black dogs, brown or spotted.

The world of the dead is the same place of who waits to be born. During the burial rituals, they offer to the deceased, to travel, clothing, food and drink. He goes over underground rivers, and climb up three levels, inside a mountain, before reaching its pacarina in the lake of the highlands. The three levels relate to the journey of three years, hence the need for three annual rituals banquets, given by the comunity to feed their dead.The role of dogs seem to be very relevant when dealing with Yawar Mayu, the Blood River.More luck has with the help of the dogs, those who treats well the dogs while is alive.Dogs can not move, only, between the domains of life and death, but are also able to see the souls of the dead. On the other hand, the unfortunate souls can take the form of black dogs and visit in the evenings their living relatives.

Finally, in an analogy between the world of the dead and the living, I would cite the ethnographer and Peruvian writer José María Arguedas, who gave his message by talking about the word INCA.

Inca does not mean merely the emperor, "INQA" (according to him, this is the true form) is the name for the original model of every being, according to Quechua mythology. Thus, the human miniatures can be more powerful than the giants because they can contain the power of all the ancestors in each individual.

3.22.2011

We are living, according to the Inca's conception of periods, or eras, the Fifth Sun. Each of these suns lasts one thousand year, subdivided, each, in two periods of five hundred years. The point that divides these periods is called Pachacuti - a word that expresses the idea of ​​transformation or global cataclysm. It is believed that there were already nine Pachacuti, and that we are living the number ten, it means, the last.

To fulfill the prophecy, the Intihuatana, solar clock, would be broken. What seemed impossible - because the last one was in Machu Picchu that is a World Heritage Site and as such, very guarded and protected - however, happened.When the verdict was read, revealing fragiles convictions to the accused, the human beings have felt aggrieved, but the divine plan of the prophecy, only did attenuate the condemnation of those who had become an instrument for it to be fulfilled.

Of what I'm talking about?

In September 2000, while filming a beer commercial in Machu Picchu, the mechanical arm of the crane that supported a swivel chair, where a cameraman was filming the citadel broke off violently and broke a corner stone, causing the fragmentation of one corner of the solar clock (Intihuatana).The INC (National Institute of Culture) from Cusco had authorized the recording, with an advance payment of 750 soles (Peruvian currency), as stated in the "Texto Único de Procedimientos Administrativos" (TUPA). The Agency, responsible for filming, had undertaken do not damaging, or dirtying, the Cultural Heritage.

The producer Cecilia Castillo Pretell and the director Eddy Romero Pascua, accused for the crime against cultural heritage, in the form of destruction and alteration of heritage, were sentenced to a penalty of four years, turned into three (so, nobody would go to prison).

The former director of the "Instituto Nacional de Cultura" (INC) (National Institut of Culture) of Cusco, Gustavo Manrique Villalobos, who had given permission to film the advertising in that place, was sentenced to three years, while former director of the Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu Héctor Walde Salazar, was acquitted.

And where does it fit the prophecy?

The Inca prophecy of Pachacuti refers to the moment of the death of the Inca Huayna Capac, which began 500 years of purification to the planet (Huayna Capac was the son of Tupac Yupanqui and member of the Panaca (clan) of "Amaru" (snake), father of Atahualpa and Huascar). This meant that the light disappeared with the Inca, who was "Intipchurin" (son of the Sun), plunging the empire in the darkness, but the light would reappear five hundred years later, when the last "Intihuatana (sundial) was destroyed.That's because Intihuatana was the place where not only astronomical observations were made but, literally, they tied the Sun there. Break it would be like freeing the time, definitely (maybe the alternative time, which our planet is subject), but above all, would be free what had been tied up, or hidden, for five centuries. That's why we've related Machu Picchu to the accident that were caused by filming the beer commercial, because it is the last Intihuatana (Sundial) that remains, which had not been touched by greed Spanish or insanity of its Catholics in search of objects of idolatry to destroy (the city of Machu Picchu was discovered only in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an archaeologist of Yale University). The Spaniards never reached the citadel.

The broken Solar Clock struck the hour of the return of the Inca, bringing back the light and a new era of reconstruction ...